Intertwined Flames from the Lateral
by laffup
Summary: As Tsuna is thrown down to the path of Vongola Decima, she realizes that she is possibly one of the most divergent candidates the Mafia has ever set eyes on. Tsunayoshi Sawada does not belong in this world, and she is not normal in the mafia sense.
1. Prologue: Everyday

Yo. This is my first fanfic. Like ever. I don't really have anything else to say, but you should listen to the A Team by Ed Sheeran while reading this chapter. Oh, and I didn't add the tag fem!tsuna in the summary because there isn't any space left for it. You guys are smart enough to know that Tsuna's a female anyway in this story.

Enjoy 8D

* * *

Prologue

Everyday

* * *

She stared out to the window glumly, biting the inside of her cheek forlornly. _Why_? Unanswered questions slushed around her head heavily, weighing her shoulders down and lugging legs behind her whenever she walked.

Her head would drop in shame, although the freakishly red hair shone out wherever she walked, like some kind of angry red sign screaming to whomever to come and torment her. A short, lanky frame carried the burden of enduring the hits and kicks, and her hair would always be tugged or pulled on if she had her back turned for even a second. No matter where she went, it was like she was fated to be picked on.

_Like moths in the night drawn into flames_. She mused at the back of her mind, somewhat absentmindedly. A detached mind, wondering away from a detached world.

The rain pitter-pattered against the frosty window, and the buildings of Tokyo seemed washed out. Engines running and people chattering were all but falling upon her deaf ears. It wasn't that she cannot hear them, but chose not to. Years of loneliness taught her that nobody had anything special to say. Nobody really looked at her, said hi to her, and acknowledged her presence. She did not hesitate to do the same thing. To her, they were just grey silhouettes blending in with the grey backdrop.

Grey.

The sad thing was, was that she doesn't know anyone else besides her who views the world this way. How she wished to confide to others like her, so they can share the same guilt of living without an actual purpose. There are many others of thinking about death, but do they really think about it? Do they live like this, forgotten and bored with the world, with just grey, grey, and grey, everywhere? Are they even sure that they want to die? Were they ready to?

Slush, slush, slush.

A bell rang clearly, signifying the start of lunch break. With forty minutes of nothing to do but staring at her hands lost in thought, she stood up with a whispery sigh and made a beeline to the school roof.

It's raining, she thought.

The school roof was strictly prohibited to students, and the consequences were to be handed out severely. Maybe that was the reason why she had chosen this spot. She's never sure now; her thoughts are always tangled into some kind of jumbled mess.

Her fingers curl over the wiring in the fence, and she cries.

She doesn't want to do it, she knows at least that much. But she does it anyway, unable to _take this_ anymore. Her eyes fill up with so many tears that it was difficult to tell which ones were hers and which ones were the skies.

Climbing over the fence with only a few slips and grabs, the girl looks down at the ground, a feeling of dread lumping in her throat. She is now on the edge of the building, her fate teetering precariously to side of death. A shaky breath whooshes out from her clammy lips, and she shivers as the rain showers mercilessly.

Haha, she thought humourlessly as her hands rubbed against her arms in vain. I'm feeling a bit cold right now. Should've brought a jacket, she thought as she held her sleeves drenched out in front of her, and her face droops in a grimace. Or an umbrella.

A panicked shout behind her screams out to stop, what the hell is she doing, but she pays no heed. She didn't look back, didn't say hello to the person who sounded worried for her, didn't acknowledge this person's presence.

Her head tilts up to look at the stormy, spitting sky, and red hair sticks all over her face. Maybe… maybe… it won't be so bad. Maybe I'll become an angel. Maybe I'll be someone important.

And with that, she jumped off the building, regretting. Because she knew all too well what the definition of reality and fantasy is.

* * *

There. Finished. May turn into one-shot, depending on this book's future.


	2. Splitting Motion

Tadah. Chapter number One has arrived.

**Warning**: A bit of in/direct swearing/ OC/ ooc

Pairings: You'll figure it out

Music for the chapter- My Blood by Ellie Goulding because it's bloody fantastic.

**Disclaimer**: If you think that I own katekyo hitman then I question your sanity.

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Chapter One

Splitting Motion

* * *

_Falling…falling…falling…._

_Everything is a blur. Buildings and windows rapidly rise up while I plunge down to my death. Screams rip out from my mouth and disappears, lost in the rushing wind. My stomach tucks in on itself, gravity punching me in the gut leaving me breathless yet screaming._

_My head aches, and my arms and legs cannot reach out to the ground to slow down the motion. Blood rushes to my brain leaving me woozy, yet the adrenalin is there, pumping me up. Red wisps of hair flies and curls around my wet face, strands of hair sticking on and my arm twitches as if it tries to scratch my cheek._

_My heart drums quick and hard in my chest, and burning heat trickles through my veins gradually swamping me with scorching heat. Shrieking at the pain, pressure, and heat, an overwhelming wave of regret swallows me. Behind the screaming and pain, senseless thoughts pass through my head._

_I'm stupid… So, so stupid… If only if I had the will to live…_

_So…weak…can't…_

_To die…I'm too young… _

_I don't… want regrets…_

_I… still want… I need…_

_And before I knew it, the ground whooshed in front of me and I could only scream the sentence that clung to my mind in desperation._

_"I STILL WANT TO LIVE!"_

_Everything exploded red._

[a]

A breath hitches at my throat as I regain consciousness, wide-eyed and trembling. Cold sweat drips down my forehead as I lay on bed staring at the ceiling, the disturbing images flashing through my mind repeatedly. The rapid pounding of my heart slows down to a more rhythmic beat as I lay a shaky hand over my heaving chest.

I dreamt of myself dying.

_N_o, a soft voice whispers at the back of my mind. _You dreamt of yourself suiciding._

I shuddered at the thought and slipped my leg out of the covers with only my toes touching the woolly carpet. Just as I expected, pins and needles shot up instantly. Retracting the stinging leg back into the covers, I grimaced at the pain and fell into stock-still silence.

My head lolled to the side as I glanced at the alarm clock sitting on my bedside and groaned.

Seriously? My brain decided to wake me up at four in the morning? Today is a bloody school day for Hershey's sake.

Slightly frustrated, I rubbed my temple which was starting throb a bit as my mind started to wonder about the lucid dream.

It's been five months ever since that nightmare started to first occur, and a few years back when I started to catch extracts of it. No matter how many times I dream about it, waking up feeling freaked out is a regular thing at least twice a week. Having nightmares about jumping off a building isn't exactly healthy.

Deciding that I stayed still for too long, I sat up and padded out of the room, ignoring the pinpricks crawling up and down my legs. Mild paralysation, I thought, not giving my legs much consideration. A brief after affect from the shock coming off the body, I guess. The paralysation was wearing off, but damn, it still hurts to walk around feeling like little bugs are gnawing on my skin.

After waking up to that nightmare, I can't fall back to sleep. I'm always too scared to close my eyes, not wanting that all too familiar feeling of dread wash over my body again. So as usual, I would take time and busy myself. Taking time when doing morning routines can actually be a pretty good time waster, especially if you're a girl who cares about looking decent. Brushing teeth, tidying hair into a ponytail, splashing cold water at face to feel more alert, and brushing teeth for five minutes straight out of boredom can prove to be time consuming as well.

Slinking down the stairs carefully as to not wake up the sleeping brunette sprawled over the couch in the living room, I crept to the kitchen to reheat leftovers from last night dinner in the microwave.

I yawned and wiped a tear that sprouted from the corner of my eye. I made sure to sleep early for soccer practice today, and yet I woke up feeling as if I've been mauled around with a bulldozer. This sluggish daze is going to kill or get me killed someday.

_And God knows, I'm not dying but I breathe now_

_And God knows, it's the only way to heal now_

_With all the blood I lost with yo-_

Frantically digging the phone out of my skirt pocket, I muted the damn thing and turned off the phone. Who the hell calls at this hour? Placing a hand over my racing heart, I tiptoed to the living room and sighed in relief when the image of the brunette slumped asleep on the couch met my eyes. Answering her questions as to why I'm awake so early in the morning would be a pain in the butt.

Pocketing the phone in my skirt, I zipped it up and decided that I would check the caller ID later.

After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

* * *

"You are late herbivore." The ends of my hair rose as I shivered at the dark, menacing tone and continued to walk past a certain prefect, knuckles popping out as my hand's grip tightened on the bag strap.

_I am invisible and I'm not going to die. I am invisible and I'm not going to die. I am invisible and I'm not going to die._ My mind chanted the sentence desperately, clinging onto the hope of not getting bitten to death.

Sadly, that mantra did not last for long.

"Did you not hear me, Tsunayoshi Sawada?" My traitorous body froze over in complete fear, leaving me in mid-walk. I swallowed down the lump forming in my throat to only find out that my mouth was as dry as sandpaper, leaving a scratchy uncomfortable feeling.

Well shit. The demon prefect remembers my name.

Rather rigidly, I turned my head around to see a demon in a human life form stare heatedly at me. With eye's narrowed into slits, lips slightly puckered into a tight line and a sinewy but well-built frame leaning against the Namimori gate with arms crossed in a casual fashion but somehow screaming I'LL-KILL-YOU-SO-HARD-THAT-YOU'LL-DIE-TO-DEATH manner, it was hard to not break down and cry. And Hershey's, was that metal I see glinting in his dress sleeve?

Fluidly, he pushed himself off the gate and raised his arms to reveal what was glinting underneath his dress shirt sleeves and smirked maliciously.

"Kamikorosu."

Backing away almost immediately, I held up both of my hands facing palms out akin to a peace treaty and gave the prefect a small, pleading smile asking for forgiveness. My heart nearly leaped out of my ribs as he mirrored my movements, stalking towards me in careful steps.

"Now, now, Hiba-kun. There are other ways to sort out problems without resorting to violence. One of the options is sitting down, having a heartfelt conversation, while sipping some green tea. You love green tea don't you? Let's not get all touchy-feely to a dangerous extent then, yes?" My voice was calm and gentle even though I was feeling far from it.

A flash of annoyance passed Hibari's face as soon as I finished and I thought back to what I may have said to tick him off. Fighting back a groan, my hand twitched as the thought of face palming entered my mind. I was reprimanding him despite the situation I'm stuck in, making it sound as if I want a bloody death wish. Not only that but I used the word 'you' and 'love' in the same sentence. He's probably thinking about how much of a "carnivore" he is and that he does not love green tea to an herbivorish extent. Most likely does not love it at all. What I said probably rubbed him off in the wrong way making it seem as if I was mocking him.

Taking a few steps back to widen the distance between us, I pulled on a cool façade, just in case he got a hold of me. After all, he hates weak, whimpering herbivores and nothing can take away his pleasure of biting them to death. I've seen cases of that more than often on a daily basis.

I felt like kicking myself. Now there were images of bodies heaped onto a mountain with a certain raven-haired boy standing on top of it, triumphantly smirking down at people with his black coat flapping in the wind.

Gulping back the fear, my mind rapidly ran through the possible choices of how to survive when encountering this kind of situation. Fighting back is already out of the question seeing that he's equipped with tonfas and probably had years of experience fighting with them- I'll be KO'd before I even get to forfeit. Then there's screaming for help… which is a plausible thing to listen to seeing that I'm a girl and Hibari is a dude, except there are two major obstacles standing in the way of it succeeding.

One- This is the school grounds, not in a shopping mall or a grocery store. And not only that, but Hibari and I are pretty much the only ones on the school grounds.

Two- This is Hibari I'm talking about.

Then there is flight. That's when the prey runs away from the predator, and when the predator chases after its food, thinking of the sick chase as a merry hunt. And yet again, this is Hibari I'm talking about. He is probably anticipating a wild goose chase, and anticipation and fear does not mix well together especially when one is out for blood.

So there is only one way to go.

"Hey, Hibari! Someone's taking a piss on the school fence!" I shouted at him bewilderingly, flapping arms around and pointing at the direction of the school fence. His steps didn't falter at the outburst and scowled at the crude language.

"I am not as senseless as you take me to be, herbivore." He warned threateningly, coat flapping dramatically behind him as soft gust of wind blew rather suddenly, stealing a cue from an action movie.

I could only stare at the figure advancing towards me that promised harmful intents, with a sinking feeling gathering at the pit of my stomach. There goes my escape plan. Well, it was only to be expected anyway. Hibari never, if not rarely, lets anyone off the hook without a beating even for the smallest mistakes. I'm going to get thrashed by him sooner or later anyway. Calming down from the reasoning I looked down at my hands, clenching them as I sighed through my nose.

It's just pain, nothing too bad to begin with anyway. Bruises and scrapes I can live with, and he isn't going to beat me up until I'm unconscious or snap my neck just for being late to school. Although playing soccer is going to hurt like a mother with the injuries he's going to give me. And once you think about it, I have a better excuse of being late to class. Encountering Hibari on a grumpy morning can have its perks even if the downers outweigh it.

Wondering as to what's taking Hibari so long, I looked up to see grey eyes staring back at me, his forehead only a few inches away from touching my own. A small "meep" slipped out of my mouth as I fell flat on my butt, wondering along the lines of what the fruk was that.

Slapping a hand over my warm cheeks, I peered up to see the looming prefect with an unreadable expression on his features. Not wanting to be at a disadvantage, I scrambled back up and picked up my bag, feeling uncomfortable as to how hot my cheeks felt.

"Um…" I started, rubbing a hand over my right arm, fidgeting slightly at his flat gaze. Why isn't he biting me to death? "I think I should be going…now. Bye." Raising a hand as a goodbye gesture, I scurried to the school building, head bent over in embarrassment and confusion. I guess I have an inkling of what it might have been but... I shook my head in dismissal. That was too far out of the line for Hibari.

So my mind could only process a single line of thought. What the hell happened?

Sliding the door open quietly, I bowed deeply as an apology for being late to the home group teacher. The teacher turned around from the blackboard with a questioning look on his face and I muttered the name Hibari. He nodded in understanding, knowing well enough that whoever encountered Hibari is someone in need of pity. Nezu-sensei pointed to the empty seat at the far left with chalk in his fingers, and waved his hand motioning me to sit down in the seat.

As soon as I sat down I buried my head in my arms and groaned. It's too early for this.

* * *

"Tsuna. Tsunaa. Tsuuunaaa." Shifting my head to the side I grunted at the cheerful voice grating on my nerves and pinched my eyes shut wishing nothing more but for him to have some kind of mute switch attached to his back. A finger started to prod my back and my lips screwed slightly to a side as tempting thoughts of snapping it in half slushed around my foggy mind. Sometime during class I must have fallen asleep and by the sound of an instructing yet feminine voice directing towards the classroom a couple of periods has passed and we now have... was it English?

"Hey Tsuuunaa." A breath tickled behind my ear and I resisted the urge to shiver. The finger has stopped poking me and instead was tracing light patterns at the nape of my neck. "Oi Tsuna. I'm in need of a study buddy."

Stifling a yawn I cracked a bleary eye open and tilted my head for a better view of the person sitting behind me. Strands of astray red hair fluttered around my sight as I tried to blow them away only for it to only fall back to tickle my warm cheeks.

Narrowing my eyes at the grinning black haired teen leaning across his desk I slightly bobbed my head in agreement. "Come over to my house or die," I muttered so only Takeshi could hear. He gave me one of his many hundred watt smiles nodded enthusiastically, out of relief or happiness I'm not too sure.

It's already ten to twelve, I sighed, stretching my limbs and working out the kinks. That pretty much means only five more minutes until soccer practice starts.

Propping an arm under my chin I stared out of the window in the far right, eyes glazed over out of complete boredom. Words such as "medieval" and "emperors" were repeated more than often and it didn't take long to figure out what the history lesson was about.

Then seemingly out of nowhere, two small figures leaped out of a bushy tree right in front of the window I was staring at and felt my eyes slowly widen in alarm. Did I just see what I thought I saw? Shaking my head, I berated myself. There is no way someone would climb up to that tree that huge and jump out of it willingly. The class is on the third floor and the tree has long since grown past this floor. And what I saw was not a teenager or an adult, but a blur of two small figures. Something that small can only be described as an infant and would a baby be able to jump out of a tree regardless of its size, much less be able to climb one? No. So it's probably some kind of bird. Either that or I'm seeing things.

But I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable as something didn't sit quite well with me.

* * *

"Tsuna, pass it to me!" Katsutoshi waved his arms around and I pursed my lips in concentration. Gathered beads of sweat dripped down to my chin as the cool air whipped around my face. Quickly swerving a leg around to the left I feigned a pass to Katsu. The persistent defender who has been tagging behind me for some time fell for the trick and was left biting the dust.

Dodging around the opposing team I kept an eye on Katsu who was standing near the enemy goal post and grinned. Swerving my body once again to the left, I kicked the ball high up in the air and dropped down in front of Kairi, who nudged the ball to stop with a small tap of his foot. He returned the grin with a cheeky smirk and kicked the ball back to Katsu. The opposing team scurried around confused with hopes of getting the ball off of us fresh in their minds.

Katsu leaped in the air and head-butted the ball towards my direction. Narrowing my eyes in concentration, I pivoted my body around and executed a perfect behind low swerve kick to the opposing team's goal. The goalie was taken by bewilderment when a blurred sphere of black and white zipped between his legs and rolled out of the net once rebounded.

"Game over!" The boys from the winning team hollered and stripped themselves of their sports t-shirt, waving the sweaty piece of fabric in front of the losing team's faces. Happy was an understatement- they were over the moon. I grinned at the sight and lifted an arm to wipe off the sweat with the back of my hand with a slight grimace. I'm going to stink like hell later on.

Someone sharply jabbed an elbow into my ribs and I clutched the area with a small yelp. Swiveling around I found myself face-to-face with a smirking Kariyo standing with Katsu beside him. Katsu had a small endearing smile as he chucked a water bottle to me and I fumbled with it, hands slippery and wet from the sweat.

"Congrats to us. We no longer have cleaning duties for an entire month." Clenching the plastic bottle with a tight grip to prevent it from slipping, I quickly unscrewed the bottle lid and drank greedily.

Cool liquid sloshed down my parched throat and I relished the sensation of it. Gulping the last mouthful of water, I sighed in content and wiped off the excess drops of water with the back of my wrist.

"Come again?" Kairi rolled his eyes and snatched the bottle away from my slippery grasp.

"I said that we. Don't. Have. Cleaning. Duties. For. An. Entire. Month. Please. Use. Your. Brain. And. Ears." Kairi smacked the back of my head with the empty bottle in hand after every pause in the sentence before I swatted it away in mild annoyance.

"Yay. No cleaning for a month. Woohoo. Let's go crazy." This time it was my turn to roll my eyes. "It's just cleaning. We're probably going to have to do it again next, next month."

Waggling his eyebrows in a suggestive way, his smirk reappeared and he held me down in a headlock, rubbing a knuckle on top of my head. "Not if we win again." He blows in my ear and I squirm away from his grasp, shoving him away with a dark scowl.

"You creep!" I huffed and rubbed my ear furiously, hating the heat my cheeks seem to be radiating. Kairi laughed and bent down to squeeze my hot cheeks, cooing as to how cute I was.

"Hey, I'm not the one who was just standing there, eyeing these half-naked men run around the field a leer on her face." Face flaming, I whack him on the upside of his head and scowled indignantly.

"I don't think that way about my soccer mates. You should know that by now you jackass." I crossed my arms and deepened my scowl.

"Does this have something to do about your darling 'Takeshi'?" He clasped both of his hands together and made sucky kissing noises.

Slapping his hands away I snapped back at him, which of course, only provided him ammo for his taunts. Katsu, who has been momentarily forgotten, was snickering at the exchange with his back turned from us.

The school bell rang and we made our way back to our classrooms bickering and laughing, unaware of the two pairs of sharp eyes trained on our backs.

After all, this is just a normal day with normal students living in a normal school life.

* * *

Well that's the first chapter done. My chapters will get longer the deeper it gets to the plot, I swear it to my OTP [which is enstu by ze way *wink wink*]

This is laffup signing out=


	3. Bewilderment

Title- Intertwined Flames from the Lateral

Summary- As Tsuna is thrown down to the path of Vongola Decima, she realizes that she is possibly one of the most divergent candidates the Mafia has ever set eyes on. Tsunayoshi Sawada does not belong in this world, and she is not normal in the mafia sense.

_To be normal isn't something one wishes for. It is what one takes for granted._

**Tags**: Humor/Adventure/AU/Varying degrees of ooc and OC characters

Pairings: Tsuna with *cough cough*

Music for this Chapter: Change (Prod. Tim Anderson) by BANKS

**Warnings: There is swearing in this chapter**

**[A/N: This is a PG fanfic.** Meaning **FLUFF AND FLUFF ONLY**.** No slash or any sex scenes**. Along the way there may be **hinted** pairings which will either be straight or yaoi because KHR honestly doesn't have that much girl characters in there for there to be yuri (I don't like yuri anyway) and relationships will be mundane if I added girl OCs just to have a yuri relationship in this book, so no. There may be direct pairings, such as whoever is going to end up Tsuna *cough*nottelling*cough* and one or two relationships** to the max**, but that's it. **This book is going to be heavily centered around action** (which I suck at writing btw, hopefully I'll get better along the way or I'm _screwed_.) so lovey-dovey scenes **won't** be popping up like weeds in a flower field.**] **

**Disclaimer**: If you think that I own katekyo hitman then I question your sanity.

* * *

Chapter Two

Bewilderment

* * *

"In which year and period did Ieyasu establish the Tokugawa government?" I recited from the cue card, angling it in a position so it was almost impossible for the other to cheat. As promised, Takeshi walked me home to get started on the history project but not before stopping at TakeSushi to pick up snacks and confirm the study session with his dad.

As soon as we started on the history revision I was surprised to find out that Takeshi idiocy in history was on par with my art skills.

"Um..." His voice trailed off clearly paying more attention towards the horror film than the free history lesson I'm giving him. I gave an annoyed grunt at the back of my throat and pressed the pause button on the remote control, the image of a woman being smothered by a long-haired ghost freezing on the television. Smacking the back of his head lightly with a history book, I heaved a heavy sigh.

"Teaching you is impossible." Tossing the book onto the bed, I shuffled the cue cards around and settled them into a neat pile at the table. "I give up." I sighed dramatically and flopped like a dead fish on the ground.

In the corner of my eye, Takeshi crawled over to where I was, wearing a playful grin adorning his face and loomed over me with his hands at the sides of my face and legs pressed against my hips.

"O-Oi, what do you think you're doing?" I stuttered and blushed at the close proximity. The black-haired boy took advantage of the situation and poked the right side of my waist and I gave a little squeal, squirming but trapped underneath his body.

"Don't be like that, Tsuna." He teased playfully as he continued to tickle my sides. He was clearly enjoying the fact that I'm still vulnerable around my waist despite the years gone by.

"G-Get off of m-me!" I shrieked in laughter, no doubt that I looked as if I swallowed a mouthful of chilies. I was laughing so hard that breathing started to hurt, and it wasn't before long that Takeshi was laughing along as well. "N-No! That h-hurts! Takeshi! T-Takeshi!" My body writhed and twisted below his own but it was no use- I have no control whatsoever. A sad attempt of striking him on his chest with both arms didn't work that well either. It was as if it was meant to land in his hands. Curling his fingers around my wrists in a loose but tight grip, he leaned down and chuckled in my ear.

"You're making me sound like some kind of pervert."

Blood rushed to my head as soon as I recalled the words that left my mouth a few moments ago. If I wasn't laughing hysterically it would have sounded as we were doing... _that_. My mouth gaped open and if possible, I blushed even more. Something warm and moist pressed against my neck, snapping me out of the momentarily daze. Eyes trailing down I saw.

And shrieked.

Shoving him off and scrambling to the opposite side of the room, I clasped both hands to my chest and stared at the groaning figure with wide eyes. He sat back up and rubbed the back of his head where presumably, a lump was forming where it connected to the ground.

"Did I do something wrong...?" He groaned again and blinked owlishly.

"Y-Y-You...I-I...T-That..." I answered stupidly and touched the nape of my neck shakily. The lingering feeling of lips pressed against my neck felt too comfortable, too familiar. A sharp stab of pain snapped me out of my stupor as the fact of what he had done sunk into mind. My mood did a complete 180 swing. "What the hell were you doing?" Lips twisted into a scowl, I gave the lying figure my toughest demeanour to hide the previous flustered actions and the feeling of my overheated cheeks.

He blinked a couple of times and his mouth opened in a perfect "o" as he realized his mistake. Scratching the back of his head rather sheepishly, he stared at the ground abashedly and gave a weak chuckle. "Ah... sorry. That didn't... I wasn't..."

Before he could say anymore, I sighed, cutting him off mid-sentence. _Count on him to be able to rile me up so easily, _I thought drolly. Screwing my lips to the side, I felt my abrupt anger fade away and took on a softer expression. "Don't worry, forget I asked." Yamamoto opened his mouth to protest, or apologize, I didn't wait to find out. I gave a sharp shake of my head and passed him one of my weary looks. "Let's just get our history project done, okay? I'm too tired to deal with this kind of shit anything more, Yamamoto." He gave a slight jerk at end of the sentence before slowly nodding his head.

"Ahaha... yeah, I guess we should."

Clambering onto my bed, I flipped the history book to the page where it was doggy-eared in the corner and read the passage in silence. Yamamoto didn't even bother with the paused horror movie and instead switched it off before mulling over a cue card left as a stack on the table. The clock ticked loudly and slowly, and I bit my lip in impatience as to what felt like an hour pass by only happen to be a few minutes. Tension in the room was suffocating and unbearable as the silence stretched. I glanced over to Yamamoto, who was now staring at the wall eyes glazed over in thought and I eyed at the cue card dangling between his fingers daintily.

Averting my eyes back to the history book, I attempted reading the passage but really just skipping over the black words in tiny print, unable to stay glued to the text despite forcing myself to stare at the history book. My mind kept thinking back to the heavy conversation, which left an awkward after feel as I recalled the words I had said to Yamamoto. Drama queen much?

I subconsciously rubbed at my cheek, frowning slightly as how the skin burned against the back of my hand. It wasn't until then when I noticed how stifling the room was. Pressing a hand at my forehead, my eyes darted to the pensive teenager. I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one reacting to the muggy atmosphere. Yamamoto is probably off with the faeries.

Tentatively slipping out of bed, I padded across the room to the window quietly, not wanting to catch the boy's attention.

After a few attempts of lifting the stubborn window screen up, I savoured the cool air washing over my humid skin. Red strands of hair fluttered against my face, unkempt from the bangs clipped back. For what seemed like the billionth time today, I sighed. A black night stared as I greeted it with a morose face. This is stupid. He's stupid. _I'm_ stupid. Why did I even bother partnering up with him? And just when I thought we were doing well...

The feeling of bugs with pointed legs crawling along my arms snapped me out of my reverie and I shook my arms out in front of me in annoyance. _This feels strangely familiar,_ I thought with a frown. My head twisted up to the light tapping heard across the roof and I squinted in the darkness trying to make out a small squat looking shape. It disappeared as fast as it came and my eyes widened a fraction. _I don't like this…_

An unknown sense of danger screamed at me, my heart was pounding painfully hard, and with every passing second the prickling gradually converted into sharp stabs.

In a split second a small whining sound whizzed past my ear, leaving a thin line of blood on my cheek. Tentatively touching the slight graze, I gaped at the contact of blood and immediately snapped my head back to examine the bedroom wall, only to pale at sight of where a small hole was embedded in the plaster that surely wasn't there a few seconds ago.

_Close the bloody window! Now!_ Fingers flying out, I grasped the bottom frame of the window sill and pulled down, another hand gripping the window ledge for support. The stupid window wasn't budging- it was at least four hundred years old, this thing. I pushed myself onto the window ledge so I was kneeling instead of leaning over and pulled it down with both hands this time.

Rustling of leaves and the creaking of branches being stepped on made its way to my ears. There was hardly any time to hide or defend as a long, black braid dangled outside the window.

"Boo." An upside-down chubby face emerged from a mop of black hair and braid, was donning a surprisingly peaceful expression on his features. A small white fuzz ball with what looked like a tail curled around its body was attached onto the boy's head, and a red piece of garb was fluttering against the boy's back, reminiscing me of a familiar sight. I stared at the little baby hanging from the outside of the window, unsure of what to feel exactly. The baby leaped from where he was hanging from and gracefully landed next to me, perching on the window ledge.

"Hěn gāoxìng jiàn dào niánqīng de yīgè." The infant gave a slight bow before straightening and hid his hands inside his robed sleeves, a smirk curving his lips as he took in my bewildered expression. "That means nice to meet you young one in Chinese. It'd be for the best if you'd remember that phrase." If I didn't know better I would've sworn that he held back a snort as my expression became increasingly baffled.

Words were lost on me and they failed to find a way into my brain. The irony of the baby's words were not completely wasted on me either.

The infant tapped the fuzz of white clinging to his head gently and carefully scooped it out of his hair and into his chubby hands. He cupped the fuzz ball in both hands and held it out to me, a small endearing smile lighting his face. "This is my partner, Lichi. Say hello Lichi."

The white fuzz ball stirred, much to my surprise, and two tiny ears perked at the sound of its name. The tail unwrapped itself from the body, revealing a pink baby faced monkey squinting and blinking owlishly. Lichi gave a shuddering yawn, a pink tongue sticking out whilst revealing two small fangs. A slight trembling went through the baby animal and the monkey contracted into a tinier ball, tail curled around the small body again.

A little gasp escaped my lips as I refrained myself from picking up the petite monkey and cooing over as to how _adorable_ it was. The boy gave a good natured smile at the slight disappointment shown on my face as he placed it over his head again, the monkey shifting around finding a comfortable place to settle on.

"I'm afraid that he is a little overwhelmed with the jetlag. It is not often that we move to a different country." He says, giving a slight chuckle as if laughing at an inside joke. "We just came back from China." The baby tacked on, noticing my confusion. Frowning at his explanation, I lifted a hand to my forehead where a headache just recently started to pound. A Chinese baby, a jetlagged monkey, and a bullet has just popped out from my window within a mere few minutes. Eyes widening in realization, I scrambled off the window ledge, landing unceremoniously on my stomach with a thump.

"Gah!" I winced as the throbbing spiked painfully, bending low that my forehead was almost touching the ground and cradling head in hands. Oh my Hershey what is with today? Before it was Hibari, Takeshi, and now some red robed brat. Talk about crazy… Casting a sideway glance at the baby, I gave him an intimidating glare between the gaps of my fingers, which to be honest, wasn't that intimidating at all.

"What's a baby doing in my house?" I muttered, keeping a wary glance on the robed infant. My mind raced as I thought back to the bullet hole ingrained in my wall and the graze on my cheek. As far as I know, babies don't hop into your house from a window with a monkey on their heads, coincidentally right after a bullet has been shot out of attempted murder. This kid probably had a miniature gun hidden in his red robe sent out to kill an innocent citizen, namely _me_.

Breathing in deeply, I slowly counted to ten mentally, blocking out any other semi-hysterical thoughts. Flipping out can be a very, very bad thing to do in front of an assassin. Well, assuming the fact that he's an assassin. Although someone as young as an infant can't possibly be one, right?

The infant shook his head, amused at the outburst and hopped down from the window ledge landing with poise, a stark contrast as to how I fell down. He sighed, clasping his hands together and gave me an assessing look. "My apologies. My name is Fon, known as the red Acrobaleano and one of the strongest babies in the world. I am involved in the Chinese Triads and my occupation is being a martial artist. I am to be one of your home tutors."

I gave him a blank stare as to what he said tried to process to mind. Baby. Strong. Red. Asian mafia. Martial artist. Home tutor. My head drew back, with both eyebrows raised and knitted together and lips pursed, something I would dub as my weirderd out expression.

How was one supposed to react to this situation? Some kind of baby had just popped out of my window seemingly from nowhere with a baby monkey on his head _which just so happened_ after someone had just attempted a murder on me with a gun, which has also been fired outside my window. He walks, talks and acts triple his years and is most likely hiding a weapon underneath that red gown of his. The baby is claims that he is Chinese, a red acro-something, a strong baby, involved with the Asian Mafia, is a martial artist for living and is to be my home tutor. What the _hell_ am I supposed to say to that_?_

Scooting away from the baby, my arm patted the top of bed and my fingers brushed over a hard, polished book cover. Grabbing the history book I pointed it threateningly at the boy, who looked a tad bit _too_ amused for my sake.

"G-Get outta here. Trespassing is against the law, _Fon_." I berated myself for the slight quiver in voice. A small voice in my mind protested, asking me as to _why_ I am threatening a baby and that I was better than that. Despite that, I went on, too riled up to stop. "If you don't I'll…I'll…" My voice trailed off and my mind scrambled in panic, trying to find a suitable threat to this baby.

The baby smirked at me with mirth dancing in his eyes. _Freaky. That expression is really freaky on a baby. _He stepped forward, the tail of his red gown swishing elegantly around his legs and his robed sleeves flapping. "Or else you'll what?" He teased with a playful undertone. "Spank me?"

"E-Exactly!" I blurted out, arm wobbling as my hand became slick with sweat and the book turned to stone in my outstretched hand. "I'll…I'll spank you!"

If there was a better time to die, now was the chance.

The expression on the baby was priceless, eyes wide and unblinking with mouth slightly agape from shock. After a few short seconds, the tips of his lips curled before disappearing in his robed sleeves. Gasps of laughter were muffled as he turned his back, his black braid swinging and small frame shaking with laughter.

My face burned as I quickly realized what I had said to the baby settled in my mind. Did I just say that? Did I just say that I would _spank_ him out of all things? Sure, he suggested it to me, but that sounded wrong in so many ways.

"Wow Reborn," The baby still had his back turned from me, but his head was titled towards the ceiling as if he was talking to no-one in particular. "Did you hear that?" He chuckled again, black braid swinging side to side.

"I did"

Head violently whipping back to the sound source, my mouth fell agape at the sight. "Wha-Who-_Another baby?_" My voice tacked on a higher octave as my disbelief skyrocketed.

Standing on top of a table was a baby who looked no older than three with a suitcase in hand. More importantly, was that this particular baby had a teenage boy slumped at the legs of the table, eyes closed and mouth slightly parted looking at complete peace.

"Wh-Wha? T-Takeshi! What the _hell_ did you do to him?" I yelled at the baby, who responded with a sly smirk as he raised a _gun_ to lift the brim of his fedora out of his eyes, revealing a pair of dark onyx orbs that held a shrewd glint, which hopefully was the trick of the light.

"Ciaossu. I'm Reborn, your new home tutor as well as Fon is." The baby greeted in a squeaky voice, completely ignoring my previous question.

"But…but…but…" I floundered helplessly, hands pulling my hair out of frustration. Did this baby take out _Yamamoto_? "You've got a _gun_!" Way to state the obvious Tsuna.

"And it's real too." He smirked, cocking it at my direction. "Wanna test it out?"

I violently shook my head, not wanting to take any chances. If the bullet hole ingrained in my bedroom wall was any help in the testimony, then I'm not going to risk the chance of staying alive.

The baby hopped off the table and landed gracefully on Takeshi's rising and falling chest, crossing his legs as the gun held in his hand transformed to a chameleon. My eyes bugged out of its sockets and I blinked as the chameleon crawled over the baby's shoulder to perch at the brim of his hat, its oval yellow eyes blinking owlishly back at me.

"As I was stating before, I am Reborn, your new home tutor. I believe that Fon has already introduced himself to you." Reborn nodded at Fon in acknowledgement as the red robed infant jumped over to perch on my shoulder with hands in sleeve, while I was too stunned at the scene playing out in front of me to protest.

Quickly gathering my wits, I opened my mouth to speak, but froze as soon as the home tutor cocked a gun at my direction, voice smooth and dark with an underlying malice.

"I am a hitman. I am not afraid to use this gun."

I closed my mouth shut.

The infant lowered the gun, but made no movements for it change back to a chameleon, the gun resting on the baby's lap serving as an ominous warning. He smirked at me, as if enjoying what was to come next.

"I was personally sent here by the current mafia boss, the ninth, to train an adolescent named Sawada Tsunayoshi, nicknamed Bukotsuna, to become an outstanding mafia boss. Fon pegged along out of mere boredom, meaning that he may come and go whenever wished. However, that means you are under my guidance until the very day you become Vongola Decima. I am very notorious for raising more than capable mafia bosses."

Reborn dug a hand into his suit pocket and drew out a pink poster sheet and held it up to my bewildered face. "The Vongola's first boss retired and crossed to Japan. He's your great, great, great grandfather. So strictly speaking, since you inherited the Vongola blood, you are a legitimate candidate to become the next boss."

Plucking the sheet out of his hands, my eyes quickly ran over the chicken scratch, noting that half the names were written in a foreign language. Trailing down the poster my eyes widened a fraction at the bolded name written below in capitals with zig-zagged spikes protruding from the two words.

"You're joking right? Isn't this some kind of typo?" I held up the poster sheet while jabbing a finger to the offending name. "It says Sawada Tsunayoshi. _I'm_ Sawada Tsunayoshi. And there is no flipping way that I'm going to be a mafia boss. Never _ever_."

The tutor snatched the poster away from my hands and folded it in a neat square before pocketing it in his suit. He gave me a cool, calculating look before smirking at the display and tipping his fedora back.

"Well then, sucks to be you doesn't it then? Bukotsuna, who is one of the clumsiest student Namimori has ever had the misfortune of meeting. You barely pass your subjects and you can't even draw a dog to save your life. In P.E you are constantly tripping on your own feet despite being in the soccer club, hence the nickname Bukotsuna." The baby said all the while unpacking what looked like a pair of pink pyjamas and a nightcap from his mini suitcase.

"O-Oi! How did you know that? Do you stalk?" My mind flashed back to history class and my eyebrows shot up to my hairline. "You do, don't you?"

The hitman baby disregarded the question and jumped onto my bed, dressed in the pink pyjamas and nightcap, and seemingly made himself comfortable. "It's sleepy time, see you tomorrow Tsuna." And with that, a snot bubble appeared from his nose, inflating and deflating with every breath.

"Is…is he sleeping with his eyes open?" I gave a grunt of surprise as Fon hopped off of my shoulder and onto the bed, momentarily forgetting that he was perched there for the entire time when Reborn and I conversed.

Fon lifted the duvet and slipped under, right next to the slumbering baby and turned towards me with a straight expression. "Reborn is a hitman. Being fully aware of one's surroundings without letting his guard down is in his system."

My gaze lingered on the baby as I slowly nodded my head. "I guess… that makes sense."

"So what are you going to do about the boy?"

"The boy?" I echoed back.

Fon turned his head in a direction and stuck his chin out. "That boy Takeshi. Or so I heard." There was a subtle cheekiness heard in his voice as he spoke which was blatantly ignored. Eyes sweeping over the slumped form, I let out an aggravated sigh and turned to the baby.

"Well what am I supposed to do? You guys knocked him _unconscious_. I can't wake him up or carry him home, and his dad will obviously be suspicious if I brought a half-dead Takeshi to him." I raised an eyebrow at the sheepish baby. "And tomorrow is going to be a school day as well. And no, he didn't bring his school uniform over. We were doing a study session. People don't bring their school uniforms over to study sessions unless they're wearing it."

Fon hummed under his breath as he stared at the wall in thought. "How about… we leave him here for the night?" He mused. The baby turned towards me before I voiced my protests. "He'll just have to wake up earlier than he's used to and run home and get ready. His house isn't that far is it?"

I gave a small shake of my head. "It's near Namimori district and it's pretty much a ten minute run to there."

The baby nodded in approval of his own idea. "Then that settles it then. Just leave him in a comfortable space and we're done. Got any futons?"

What felt like the billionth sigh passed my lips as I walked over to my bedroom closet and pulled it open with a squeak. Reaching for the white futon stacked on top of the shelving that separated it from the clothes rack, I pulled the white bundle down in my arms and spreaded it out evenly on the ground.

"Now what do I do?" I asked Fon in dismay.

He raised an eyebrow at my question (which I was quickly starting to find out that he did this a _lot_) and gave me a look that conveyed as to how incompetent I was. I levelled his expression with a glare. If anyone was to give me that kind of look, it would be anyone _but_ a baby. Even though Fon was a smart baby who was too advanced in his years, he was still a baby nonetheless.

"Drag him into it." _Duh_. He may as well added that word in the end of his sentence for all he's worth.

Gritting my teeth in annoyance, I brusquely walked over to the fallen teenager and circled my arms underneath his armpits and dragged him up to a sitting position. Slogging him over to the futon with his feet lagging in front of him, I gave small grunts of exertion. What did this boy _eat_ for Hershey's sake? He was heavy despite how lean and tall he was and had bundles of muscles up around his torso all around to his shoulders.

I looked back to the ground when I realized that my feet had stepped something cool and cushiony. Lowering him down to the futon, I picked his legs up and placed it on top, then straightened his head and shoulders. I stepped back, giving the teenage boy a once over before going back to the bedroom closet I had yet to close.

The questioning gaze from the baby didn't go unnoticed as I patted the wooden shelving of the closet, hand drifting around and ready to grab anything that came to contact with. My fingers brushed over a thin, satiny cloth and I eagerly pulled it out, which came out as a swath of blankets. Keeping it tucked underneath an arm, I bent down to my knees as I dug out a big fluffy pillow from the bottom of my closet, hidden underneath the clothes hanging from the rack.

Shaking the bundle of blankets, a white fluffy blanket fell from it and I draped it over Yamamoto's body, smoothing out the wrinkles and making sure that an arm or leg hasn't been left uncovered.

"So I take it that you're not going to sleep on your bed?" Fon questioned, eyeing the blue satiny blanket and the big fluffy pillow in my arms.

"Yes," I snorted as I nudged the closet door shut. "I don't know about you, but I rather not sleep with a person in possession of a gun that can very well kill or fatally injure someone, thank you very much." After a few short seconds, I tacked on another retort as an afterthought. "Or any assassins or hitmen for that matter."

Dumping the pillow a few spaces away from Yamamoto, the blanket fluttered as it was set down on the floor. Switching off the light, I settled down on the floor, feeling slightly uncomfortable on the hard floor. The rough carpet scratched against my skin and I was well aware that I was going to end up being in the shower for an extended period of time tomorrow.

Dragging the cool blanket around my body, I grunted out a half assed goodnight. A half assed goodbye grunted back.

The last thought I had before I drifted asleep rang clear in my mind; that this was officially the weirdest day of my life.

* * *

_The first thing I picked up was the sound of jazz; a smooth melodic hum filling the small yet surprisingly comfortable place with music, reaching my ears as the sound reverberated off the walls. The second thing that was picked up was that my body felt strangely heavy and taut as if I was filled with lead and my skin was wrapped around it tightly, feeling forced in a position that didn't fare well with sleeping. The third thing I picked up was that I was sitting in a leather chair, with my arms hanging off the armrests and head slumping on the edge of the leather recliner._

_"What the…" I grumbled as I dragged an arm to push my brown locks off of my face, before staring down at my body. _

_"The fuck…?" A simple black fitted vest clung to my body, with an orange long-sleeved polo shirt underneath and a black tie tucked in. Matching black pants complimented the vest and although I couldn't see my feet, I had leather shoes on seeing as to how stiff the inside material felt._

_I felt completely exhausted and drained, as if someone or something has sapped all of my strength and no amount of sleep can fully recover the strength that has been lost. It was a chore to talk, and my jaw felt slack and tired as if had been chewing on gum balls for three hours straight. Eyes fluttering shut, a tired yawn slipped from my lips and I relaxed in the chair, soaking in the comfortable environment and focusing only on the soft music._

_ "Kufufufu… I see that you're having fun, Tsu-na." I gave a noncommittal grunt and left it at that. Sleeping through a lucid dream felt more appealing than interacting with a figment of imagination, although it would be rather entertaining to start a conversation with someone face to face in a dream. _

_A gloved hand brushed across my cheeks, before trailing up and raking its fingers through my hair. A cool breath fanned over my cheeks and eyelashes, and another hand trailed down my neck, fingering a button on the polo shirt. Lips were pressed just above my jawline and it wasn't long before the first button popped off._

_ A small 'kufufu' was heard as the hand trailed down to the next button. The raking stopped, hand just resting on my shoulder and the lips were now nibbling on my earlobe. I was full-aware of what the person was doing to me, but it was beyond me to move. This person could raise a gun to my head and shoot my brains out and I would just sit there, not even giving the slightest flinch. _

_Another button was popped open and I growled at the back of my mind. Figment or not, this person is starting to really disgust me. Is this supposed to be a wet dream or something? Because my brain is failing miserably in that compartment right now and if wet dreams are made out with the thoughts of rape, then I don't want them at all._

_The gloved hand teasingly rubbed an index finger right above my chest and with that, I forced my eyes to open, immediately taking in the fact the person was a guy, not a girl. Glaring at the mismatched eyes, my body gave the slightest shift away from him. _

_"You." I growled, tensing my jaw despite the complaints. "Get the fuck away from me."_

_The blue haired teenager did the complete opposite, pressing his forehead against mine and pinning me to the chair with both hands on shoulders. A smirk curved his lips as his red and blue eyes stared into my own, a tongue running across his top lip._

_"Oya oya, seems like we have a problem child over here. Looks like I need to punish you." He chuckled, a finger running across my bottom lip. _

_I raised a shaky arm and placed it on his chest, ignoring the screams of my arm muscles to STOPSTOPSTOP! The blue haired man quirked an eyebrow, looking slightly impressed at my display of revolt before snaking a gloved hand to my cheek, ignoring the arm and its feeble attempts of holding him back. To my horror, my arm limply fell from his chest, which encouraged the blue haired man to continue. _

_Lips were softly pressed against mine and I violently jerked away, the expression of disgust evident on my face. Bile burned in my throat at the sudden movement and I wasted no time bringing my forehead down to his head, fully intending to give the molester a mother of all headaches. _

_But before my forehead could make any contact, everything around me dispersed into smoke, and I fell head first into a dark abyss._

* * *

This chapter was way better than the original one. Totes.


	4. Yo

This is not an update. I'm just going to tell you that this story is going to go under a hiatus for a while. No, I'm not going to abandon this story. I just need to sort some plot bunny shit out and rewrite a few chapters over since some of it didn't meet my satisfactory. This is also a chance to tell you the new title of this book. The new book title is 'Intertwined Flames from the Lateral' (yeah I know, it's epic as). It suits the plot waaaaaay better than 'Waste Away'. So by the next update, this book is going to be named Intertwined Flames from the Lateral kay? And by the next update, this note is going to be taken down.

**AND NOT ONLY THAT, BUT DO YOU REMEMBER THE OTHER VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT STORY THAT LINKS WITH THIS? I UPLOADED IT. CHECK IT OUT. NO SERIOUSLY. IT INTERMINGLES WITH THIS BOOK. IT'S CALLED 'MARIANNE JO'. AND NO, THIS ISN'T PURELY SELF ADVERTISING. **

**AND GO ON TUMBLR AND ASK ME FREAKING QUESTIONS. I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU ASK ABOUT. JUST GO ON TUMBLR AND DO IT.**

laffup out=


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